Another seizure after almost a year

[roxy007]

My, almost 8 year old labrador was diagnosed with epilepsy a month after her 5th birthday having had a couple of fits quite close to each other and after assessment by our vet. She was put on Phenobarbitone and was on that albeit a very small dose for almost a year. Our new vet wanted to wean her off it to see how she did and after the long months of weaning her of this gradually she has been brilliant until last year when she had a fit in April, May, June, July and August. Each one was almost exactly a month apart and most happening around 3 or 4am, the latest one being 7am. Our vet after discussion with ourselves said that he was not keen to recommence her on Phenobarb at this stage and to continue to see how she did. We have been able to bring her out of her seizures relatively quickly with the fabulous ice pack treatment and as such she has done well. We changed her regime to giving her a tablespoon of pure vanilla ice cream (hagen daz or Mackies as they have no additives) if she had had a particulalry busy day or is tired after a long walk as we do a fair bit of hill walking etc and also a spoonful of ice cream and a very small meal just prior to bed time and again she has done well and has not had a seizure since last August. I was so upset for her a couple of nights ago as it was just coming up to midnight when she jumped up, vomitted a snall amount of liquid then ran through to the kitchen before going into a full blown seizure. Paddling, incontinent, snarling, howling etc. This time it went on for over a minute before she finally started to come out of it. Its such a shame as she has done so well for so long and we can't think of anything we have done differently that could have triggered this. Also it was not around the times that she has had them in the past. Any suggestions would be so helpful. Its just so distressing for her and for us. However when she does come out of it she just grabs a toy and wanders around wagging her tail at us for about 20 mins before falling into a sound sleep exhausted.

 

[Stinkbomb]

Poor doggy

our old boxer had a brain tumour and although he didnt have epilepsy it caused siezures as epilepsy would. I know how distressing it is too see them as Malic had very bad siezures.

I can see why you vets are not really happy to continue with the Phenobarbitone, as this, when used for a long time causes liver failure. Malic couldnt have this drug as he had a bad heart but was given Potassium Bromide instead. Potassium Bromide is used in epilepsy and has no effect on the liver.

Malic did extreemly well on this drug. After having 5 very severe fits in the space of a few hours, once started on this drug he only had one more and that was at the end of his life ( 9 months later ) and it was the accumilation of lots of things that he died of.

Why not ask your vet about this drug? If you dog is having an increasing number of fits i dont see how not giving her drugs to control it can be beneficial???

Hope she is feeling better soon